HDC Idol 2008-09

[The Flayed One]

Pitter-patter


Basic plot outline
Sasha, Selina and Sofia are triplets born to a single mother named Eugenia. Eugenia is deeply into black magic. Born into poverty, she covets power and wealth, and has learned a spell to let her rip through the fabric of time into the womb of her choice throughout history. She needs a Yaga child, a blind girl with chicken feet who will dance her pitter-patter dance and beat her pretty drum to open up the fabric of history. The Yaga girl will not dance unless she has pretty feet to play with. So Eugenia must turn one of her girls into a Yaga, and keep one of the others feet to keep her happy.


As we open, We see Eugenia hovering over a wooden table in a small cottage with an hearth blazing. A baby her back is turned to the camera and we see two children on an animal skin rug, crying. There is pounding on the door as we here people demanding that she open. The door is broken down and three men rush into the room to halt in horror. Eugenia turns around, blood spattered on her face. The men garrote her and stab her repeatedly with a knife as children wail. On the table, we see the horror of her crimes. There lies Sofia, her second a fourth toes and fingers severed in a bowl, her eyes gouged out. The other babies continue to scream as the camera pans into the fire and men shout in the background.


“The chicken toed girl, she lies in the corner, unmoving. The ghastly ghoul waits for her set of pretty feet to dance the pitter-patter beat upon the floor unto which the fabric of history itself will sway and moan.”


The movie takes place in a small village in the wilderness of Russia in the 1920's. I'd like to film on location during the autumn if possible. I want there to be some snow around, but not entrenching blizzards.


As we move on in the story, we see a poor family in the village has raised Sasha and Selina as peasant daughters. The family is close to their wits end with the two. They do not get along as twins; they constantly injure each other with what seems to be malicious intent. When the father, Gavril, starts hitting Sasha for stabbing Selina in the thigh with a pitchfork, Selina takes the opportunity and stabs him in the back with a scythe. As the mother, Agnes, holds Gavril, she tells the girls that they are horrible, evil incarnates just like their mother. Upon this discovery, the girls torture their foster mother by dunking her head in the icy stream as their adopted father lay dying until she confesses the truth. They have another sister. As far as she knows, she could not be burnt nor slain. She sits in the corner of a cottage in the woods, infested with lice and filth. She does not move, just slumps in the corner awaiting to fulfill her ungodly purpose. Once the girls learn this, they beat Agnes on the head with a rock until she ceases to move and set out to find the cabin.


One of the things I want to convey in this movie is the sickly poverty. The actors/actresses might be beautiful, but their hair should be matted and their persons dirty. Lice and flies should be abundant to convey the desperation of the despicable deeds.


When Sasha and Selina find the cabin, it's charred and covered with dust. Large spiders roam the floors. They see their sister, Sofia, slumped in the corner unmoving. She is a disgusting sight to behold. Her hair is infested, her eye sockets are hollow and she is mangled from animal claws. The two discover their mothers spell in an old chest. As the two come to realize what needs to be done, the face off immediately begins. One of the two must sever the feet of her sister to be able to harness the dance of Sofia and be reborn in better times.


I'm not pulling back on any violence here. I want the air to reek of what two people who don't like each other could do to one another if they had a chance at a new beginning.


As the finale draws near, Selina rams Sasha's head into a mirror, and then violently stabs at her with a shard. Defending herself, Sasha reaches out to grab an old cast iron poker and hits Selina with it. She continually clubs her until Selina is unconcious. She then grabs a nearby axe and severs Selina's feet. She gives them to Sofia, which animates the seemingly dead corpse to life. Sofia starts to stomp around and beat her little drum, and the template of reality goes fuzzy. Sasha, bleeding profusely, reaches out into nothing and grasps the fabric of history. As the ghosts of the past crawl up her arm, she feels every single birth that has ever been, and ever will be. Sofia continues to dance wildly; as Sasha is absorbed into nothingness. Sofia's mechanical dance halts. She sits in the corner again, fondling Selina's feet. Beautiful feet which she never had. As she caresses her sisters feet, the credits begin to roll as we hear the faint beat of her little drum in the background. Fade to black.


Director – Marc Evans
Writer – Michael Hirst


Cast:
Selina - Maiwenn Le Besco
Sasha – Alex Reid
Gavril – James Coburn
Agnes – Helen Mirren
Eugenia – Holly Hunter


After the credits roll, we get to see closure.


Cut to glorious ancient Egypt. Beautiful twin daughters are born as magi and Pharaoh look on. It is a glorious time. There is a celebration, as the daughters are presented to all. Once the night is over, the Pharaoh and his queen lay down to sleep. The old wet nurse creeps into the nursery. As one child squirms, she hovers over her bed, grasps her foot and brings the knife ever close.


This movie should take about two years to film. We need the right before winter feel, which could also be accommodated in late winter/early spring.


For marketing, I'll start by seeing if I can get Mike Mignola to produce a Hellboy ashcan with the history of the Yaga girl attached. He already uses Baba Yaga heavily in his work, so I don't see it being a big stretch.


I'd also like to get together with Chris Cunningham (of Rubber Johnny fame) and see if he would produce a viral video of the pitter-patter dance for YouTube.


Last, we'll embark on a campaign that every twin who registers on the website gets a chicken foot necklace to ward away evil powers. (There is a program where twins get a two dollar bill on every birthday. It's a slight mirror of that)


This concludes my presentation. I hope I have lived up to the standards that brought me this far in this competition.

[bwind22]

Make your own horror movie.

- You have to give full details about your movie - from the moment of conception till the final release, involving basic premise idea, script, choice of producer, director, actors, music directors, cinematographers and other film crew. Elaborating on shooting locations, length of time involved in the shooting, marketing (viral or direct) and promotion leading up to the final release. And of course, the suitable title.

Well, I wasn’t exactly sure if the judges would be looking for originality, marketability or franchise potential so I went with a combination of all of the above. This is an original story by Brian Wind. It follows the fairly standard recipe for horror success in that we have a secluded group of good looking teens in a perilous situation with minimal help from the outside world where they’ll be killed off one by one. The villain I am using is one that, quite frankly, I’m surprised hasn’t been done before (or at least hasn’t been done well.) Basically, my goal with this was to come up with an idea that could easily be the next big summer horror movie without feeling like something stale that we’ve already seen a hundred times before. I hope you enjoy it….


SPRING BREAK

RURAL MEXICO, YUCATAN PENINSULA – ONE WEEK AGO

An old man & his granddaughter are just finishing up a day of fishing. It's dusk and they are on their way home. The girl is playful and skips ahead. Grandpa warns her to stay close. She stops. As he closes the distance between them, he notices a glowing red pair of eyes. He gasps as an ominous dark figure darts across the path and snatches his granddaughter and disappears with her in to the blackness of the jungle. She screams as grandpa races to the scene and shines a flashlight in to the jungle, but sees nothing. The screams fade in to the distance and then silence. Grandpa falls to his knees, weeping.

CANCUN MEXICO – PRESENT DAY

Spring Break is in full swing at a fancy Oceanside resort. Hundreds of bronzed college-aged coeds drink, dance and party in the most hedonistic of ways. One girl, Kristen, sticks out like a sore thumb as she sits quietly at poolside sipping a margarita as she flips through the pages of a book about Mexican history and mythology. Also at her table are Heather and Laura, both drinking heavily and grading every guy that walks past based solely on appearance. Amanda approaches holding another round of drinks. She sets them on the table and rolls her eyes ar Kristen before asking when she's going to put down the book and loosen up. Kristen responds that she's fine, but then Laura and Heather take Amanda's side and attempt goading Kristen in to loosening up too. They mention that they've already been in Mexico for two full days and Kristen has yet to make out with anyone, unlike Nicole who has already made out with everyone and gotten laid four times. To emphasize this point, they nod towards Nicole, who is busy sucking some guy's face with her hand down his pants in plain view of everyone. Kristen groans and tells them she'll never get drunk enough to act like that. This prompts Amanda to offer a deal. Amanda tells Kristen that if she parties hard enough and gets drunk enough to leave her virginity in Mexico tonight, then tomorrow they will all go do something nerdy with her... Whatever she wants. Upon hearing the offer, Kristen softens her stance a bit. Heather and Laura both agree to go along with whatever she wants to do. Kristen is close to agreeing, but objects saying Nicole would never go for it. Amanda promptly retrieves Nicole, who arrives, dragging the guy she's with behind her by the johnson. Nicole introduces her guy as Bach, the Asian DJ party man. Amanda recaps the deal to her and Nicole is reluctant. Nicole says she isn't interested in sightseeing and doubts Kristen will get laid. Bach pulls her aside and whispers in her ear that he'll go with on whatever nerdy endeavor Kristen picks and also that he might be able to help get her laid. As Nicole returns to the girls, she announces she's in. Kristen reluctantly agrees to party hard tonight in exchange for choice of activities tomorrow. The girls cheer and then insist that Kristen has some catching up to do as Amanda heads back to the bar for shots.

HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

The sun has gone down but the party is still raging. Heather is passed out on a couch. Kristen, Amanda and Laura are around a table playing drinking games with CC, a skinny pale guy, Deuce, a tough dude, and Noel, a handsome and charming guy. Nicole stands up and leads Bach towards a bedroom. Sufficiently intoxicated, Kristen stands up and announces that she needs to go to lay down but first she has to fulfill her end of the bargain and asks who wants to get laid. The guy's all look at each other, silently determining which of them will get to capitalize on this opportunity. Deuce and Noel both agree that CC needs it most. CC, looking timid, rises from his seat and follows Kristen in to a bedroom.

TOUR BUS - NEXT DAY

The open air tour bus zips along a dirt path carved through the middle of the jungle. Roberto, jovial and portly, drives as Fernando stands beside him facing the passengers and describing local landmarks in to a megaphone. In the front seat, an elderly couple, Mr. & Mrs. Nyberg listen intently. A seat behind them, Perry, a 30-something photographer snaps pictures of the foliage as they go. In the back several seats are Kristen, Amanda, Laura, Heather, CC, Noel, Deuce, Bach and Nicole, with the exception of Kristen who seems pretty chipper, they all seem incredibly hungover. Heather asks how much further but before she gets an answer she leans out of the bus and begins puking. Kristen excitedly tells CC about the tour. She's clearly thrilled to be on her way to visit the Mayan Ruins.

Thud! The bus screeches to a halt. Roberto and Fernando bicker back and forth in Spanish. The passengers are mainly concerned. Deuce questions what they just hit. Fernando grabs the rifle that hangs above the driver’s seat and steps off the bus to investigate. Upon seeing a carcass beneath the bus, he calls to Roberto, who also gets off the bus. The two men stand in front of the bus examining the road kill of a small creature that looks something like a hybrid between a man and dog. Everyone else looks on curiously as Fernando and Roberto drag the small carcass out from under the bus and to the side of the road. None of them have ever seen anything like it. Perry furiously snaps pictures.

As Roberto and Fernando discard the road kill and start heading back towards the bus, the jungle nearby rustles. Both men freeze in their tracks. Fernando raises the rifle. A massive beast, similar to the one they hit but five times as large leaps from the undergrowth and pounces on Roberto. In an instant, it savagely snaps his neck then plunges it's teeth in before dragging Roberto's lifeless form towards the jungle. Fernando fires the rifle twice, but the shots both miss due to the speed that the creature is moving.

Fernando returns to a bus full of shocked and hysterical passengers. Deuce asks "What the fuck was that?" Fernando babbles to himself in Spanish for a moment. His sentence ends with a word they all recognize..."Chupacabra." The word sends a wave of panic and skepticism across the passengers. Amanda urges him to get to get them the Hell out of there. Fernando seems to snap out of it and takes the driver's seat, but his face sinks. Roberto had the keys. Deuce makes his way to the front of the bus and begins trying to hotwire it. A few minutes later, the engine roars to life which leads to a brief celebration, but it's cut short as just as quickly the engine sputters out, dead. Once again, panic sets in on the passengers. The trees begin to rustle again and Fernando raises the rifle. The Chupacabra emerges in a blur, leaping from the undergrowth and landing on top of the bus's rollbar. Fernando fires. The shot hits the beast in the midsection but has minimal effect. With great speed, the Chupacabra reaches a clawed hand through the open aired roof of the bus and swipes at Fernando. Fernando falls backwards, avoiding the claw as he fires another shot. The shot misses. Mrs. Nyberg begins to scream hysterically as she and everyone else realize in unison that the swipe meant for Fernando ended up decapitating Mr. Nyberg instead. The Chupacabra disappears in to the jungle with the severed head as quickly as it appeared.

Hysterical, Laura freaks out, climbs out the back of the bus and begins running down the path they came in on. Bach yells for her to come back but she ignores him. Bach and Nicole decide, against the urging of the rest of the group and against their better judgment, to go after her. The three are soon out of sight.

In the bus, the group weighs their options. Fernando advises they wait with the bus because there are no towns for dozens of miles in either direction, plus another tour could be coming along at any time. Noel asks if there is a radio on the bus and Fernando informs him there is but it doesn't work. Amanda asks how far to the ruins and Fernando informs her they are about four miles ahead. The group scours the bus for any supplies that may be of use but only come up with one flare gun with three flares and a couple bottles of water, in addition to Fernando's rifle, which is only has a total of 8 rounds left. Fernando shoots the flare gun in to the sky then sets it aside.

[bwind22]

Deuce and Fernando decide to try to fix the bus while they wait. As they work on it, the rest of the group stands in a cluster nearby. After a bit, Perry has to take a leak and wanders a short distance in to the trees to take care of it. As he pees, his eyes wander the trees. Suddenly, he sees a flash of movement nearby. His eyes widen as the Chupacabra appears in front of him. His scream is cut short as the beast's razor sharp claws slash his throat.

The group hears Perry scream. Noel and CC go to investigate and find a camera lying in a pool of blood and urine.

As Noel and CC return to the group to report their findings, morale drops even lower than it was. A piece of the engine snaps off in Deuce's hand and is chucked against the hood in frustration. "We're fucked." Deuce reports.

Fernando decides it may be best to try to make it to the ruins since there may be another tour group there that will take a different route back to civilization. They all agree and decide to remain close together as they make the four mile trek. CC takes the flare gun.

JUNGLE - LATER

The bus is miles back now and the group is in the middle of the jungle without any protection. Fernando is leading the pack, rifle at the ready. Mrs. Nyberg is having trouble keeping up, despite CC trying to help her along. Mrs. Nyberg stumbles to the ground. CC tries to help her up but she tells him to go on without her. She can't make it and she's slowing them down. CC refuses and tries to help her up again. Meanwhile, the group is getting further and further ahead of them. The bushes rustle. CC freezes in his tracks. Mrs. Nyberg urges him to leave her. He doesn't know what to do. The Chupacabra appears in a blur, bats CC aside, knocking him to his ass then makes off with Mrs. Nyberg, who is too worn out to even muster a scream. Shocked, CC backpedals on his butt and then gets to his feet and sprints to catch up. He informs the group that the beast got Mrs. Nyberg. The group stops as Fernando aims the rifle in the general direction of where she was taken. There is nothing but the eerie stillness of the jungle. Fernando tells them they need to keep moving and they resume their journey.

At that moment, the trees ahead of them begin to rustle. Fernando raises the rifle just as the Chupacabra appears about ten yards in front of the group. Screams and panic. Fernando stays calm, fires two shots right in to the chest of the beast before it reaches. The shots don't seem to slow it down at all as it pounces on Fernando and eviscerates him. The group scatters into the jungle. Kristen, Amanda, and CC go one way while Heather and Noel retreat down the path in the same direction they just came from. Deuce stands his ground and grabs a thick branch from the ground nearby. He brings it down across the Chupacabra's head as it feasts on Fernando. The force actually knocks the beast to the ground. Deuce clubs it again as it tries to get up, and again, and again. Deuce shouts for assistance, but no one is around to hear him as he pummels the beast continually, but it won't stay down. Deuce sees the rifle lying near Fernando's body and grabs it. He puts it to the Chupacabra's head point blank and pulls the trigger. Click. No ammo. Deuce quickly dashes to Fernando and begins looking for the rest of the ammo. The Chupacabra gets back to its feet and lunges for Deuce as he fumbles through Fernando's pockets for the few remaining shells. Deuce braces with the gun as the beast lands on him. He struggles to keep the Chupacabra’s teeth away from his face but the weight of the creature is slowly draining his strength and the beast inches closer. Deuce begins to yell for help, but there's still no one around. Snap! The beast's teeth gnash at his face, peeling skin from bone. Deuce screams as his elbows buckle and the beast begins to devour him alive.

JUNGLE – A SHORT TIME LATER

Noel and Heather stop running down the path to catch their breath. They listen closely but all is quiet. Noel questions whether or not she thinks the others are okay. She says she’s not concerned about the others, only herself. Just then, branches start cracking as something big moves rapidly through the jungle in their direction. They sprint down the path. Noel gets ahead of her and she yells for him to wait. He slows down and turns around just in time to see the Chupacabra bolt from the trees and snatch her in mid stride, disappearing into the trees on the other side of the trail. Noel resumes running.

JUNGLE – A SHORT TIME LATER
Kristen, Amanda and CC arrive at the Mayan Ruins only to find there are no other tours present. Despair sets in. CC tries to keep a level head as they scan the area for any ideas, then he remembers the flare gun. He shoots it straight up. This flare actually works, sending a distress signal high in to the sky.

JUNGLE – AT THAT MOMENT

As he passes the broken down bus, Noel looks up in the sky to see the flare several miles in the distance. He knows someone is still alive, but there are too many miles of jungle between them so he continues in the direction he was heading.

JUNGLE – A SHORT TIME LATER

Dusk is approaching as CC, Amanda and Kristen sit at the base of one of the Mayan pyramids trying to build a fire.

JUNGLE – AT THAT MOMENT

Noel rounds a bend and finds total carnage. Blood everywhere, Bach’s tattooed arm rests in the middle of the road, tatters from Laura’s shirt are a short distance in front of Bach’s arm and beyond the tatters Nicole’s once beautiful head lies in the center of the road. Noel drops to his knees and pukes. As he finishes heaving, a shadow falls over him. He slowly turns around as his face pales. The Chupacabra pounces on him.

JUNGLE – A SHORT TIME LATER

It is night time now. Kristen, Amanda and CC sit in silence around a small fire in the midst of a pitch black jungle. Kristen breaks the silence with an apology. Amanda questions why she’s apologizing and Kristen says it was her idea to come out here. Amanda tries to console her telling her they all agreed on the deal to which Kristen breaks down. Through tears, she tells Amanda that she didn’t even live up to her end of the bargain and that she and CC didn’t have sex the night before. CC’s ego is dented by this admission but he can not deny it. He just says “You promised you wouldn’t tell.” Kristen explains that they both agreed to lie about it once they got in the bedroom so they wouldn’t disappoint their friends. Amanda doesn’t know what to say. Eventually Amanda says it’s her that should apologize because they shouldn’t have tried to pressure her into doing anything she didn’t want to do in the first place and they should have been willing to allow her to select an activity once and while without stipulations attached. Just then, there is a rustling in the trees nearby. Amanda and Kristen clutch each other in fear as CC stands to face the intruder and act as a skinny, pale shield to the girls. Two glowing red eyes appear in the darkness. CC draws the only weapon he has, the flare gun which is on the last flare and aims it at the eyes. Before he can shoot, the eyes vanish and a large black mass passes through the moonlight as the creature lunges for them. CC fires the flare gun, but the shot misses, sending a bright red flare high in to the air. The Chupacabra lands on CC as it’s claws tear into his flesh. Kristen and Amanda retreat up the steps of the ancient pyramid as CC is devoured at the base. Once it’ has feasted, the Chupacabra begins to ascend the pyramid as well, almost toying with its prey as it moves slowly and deliberately. As it nears the top, the two girls split up and each runs down a different side. The creature crests the top, the leaps halfway down, pouncing on to Amanda’s back from behind. She screams as she falls, her spine cracks as she is bent in half before the Chupacabra tears in to her jugular and feasts on her blood. Hearing the sounds of her friend being killed and realizing the futility of her situation, Kristen stops and turns to face her fate. A second later, the Chupacabra reappears at the top of the pyramid. It eyes her curiously from afar and then leaps in to the air. BANG! A loud gunshot shatters the silence of the jungle and sends the Chupacabra sprawling backwards with a gaping hole in its chest. It lands with a lifeless thud on the pyramid steps. Kristen turns around to spot an elderly Mexican man carrying an elephant hunting gun. It is the same man who had his granddaughter snatched at the start of the film. She runs to him and thanks him. He tells her in Spanish that he doesn’t speak English and then he makes a hand gesture that lets her know he saw the flare and came to help. Just then, a bright white spotlight is shined on the two from above. A helicopter search party has found them. The pilot speaks through a megaphone and says there is nowhere to land so they will need to climb up a rope ladder. As the ladder descends, there is another rustling in the trees. The old Mexican man reloads his elephant gun and helps Kristen to the top of the pyramid while he keeps a watchful eye on the trees. She begins climbing the ladder. As she gets half way up, she hears another thunderous shot. She turns to see another splattered Chupacabra on the pyramid steps. As the man reloads the gun again, he is pounced on. Seeing this, the pilot begins to ascend as Kristen crests the ladder and is helped in to the chopper by the co-pilot. As the spotlight moves away from the pyramid, dozens of glowing red eyes are visible in the dense jungle nearby.

THE END.

[bwind22]

Specs
SHOOTING LOCATION: Cancun, Mexico and surrounding areas
LENGTH OF SHOOT: 10 Weeks

Crew
PRODUCERS: Francis Ford Coppola, Wes Craven
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Wes Craven
MUSIC DIRECTOR: Pilar McCurry
SPECIAL FX SUPERVISOR: Brock Jolliffe
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hyung-ku Kim
EDITOR: Ed Marx

Cast
KRISTEN: Anna Paquin
AMANDA: Eliza Dushku
NICOLE: Shenae Grimes
LAURA: Erica Leerhsen
HEATHER: Christa Flanagan
CC: Bryan Greenburg
BACH: Doua Moua
NOEL: Jared Padalecki
DEUCE: Nick Steele
FERNANDO: Luis Guzman
ROBERTO: Otto Sanchez
MEXICAN GRANDPA: Danny Trejo
MR. NYBERG: J.K. Simmons
MRS. NYBERG: Shirley Jones
PERRY: Jeremy Sisto

The roles of the Mexican Granddaughter and helicopter pilots are very small and could go to unknowns.

Marketing/Promotion

There would be 3 distinctly different poster campaigns. One featuring the hot young cast, one featuring the exotic locale and one with the red glowing Chupacabra eyes staring out from a dense, dark jungle.

The trailer would be very rapid cuts, basically just getting the general point across that there are a bunch of good looking people being hunted and killed in the jungle but not giving away any of the plot.

Because a lot of the cast are lesser known actors, it shouldn’t be much trouble (in terms of their schedules) to get them in to heavy rotation on all the late night talk shows promoting the film. Also, many appearances on channels like MTV, Spike, Cartoon Networks Adult Swim, etc… would be a good idea to make certain that every member of the target demographic knows about the film.

Another promotion idea could be to give away 1 round trip for 2 to Spring Break at each theatre showing the film on opening night. This would get people out in droves right away and as long as the film is made well, the positive word of mouth will bring in more than enough extra viewers to offset the cost of the promotion.

It’d also be a smart idea to promote the film heavily at the actual Spring Break locations like Cancun, Acapulco, Mazatlan, etc.., even sponsoring parties and bar nights and having cast members making appearances.

I guess that concludes my entry as well as my stint here on HDC Idol. I just want to say to Chrono & Flayed that no matter how this ends up, I had a blast competing with you and reading through your incredibly creative entries each round. Roshiq, Ferret, BloodRayne, alky and everyone else who spent time posting high quality work… Great job. These sorts of things don’t work very well without good participation so thanks for making this contest an excellent and memorable one.

I’d also like to take a few seconds to thank V for putting on a fun and incredibly challenging contest as well as thank all the judges, Neverending, Doc, Austin, Hammerfan and Roderick Usher for taking the time to critique and grade the entries. Well done and I can’t say I disagree with anything that’s been said by any of you thus far. You’ve all been superb, fair and impartial in your grading and judging.

It’s been a blast. Thanks again V.

This is bwind22, signing off.

[ChronoGrl]

This was a really tough one. As Bwind articulated, there’s a definite dichotomy between what I consider makes good cinema and what is the stereotypical “recipe for success” that will top the box offices.

In mulling this challenge over, I had to go with the former; while I can understand the merit of marketing to the masses, when it comes down to it, there are directors whom I respect greatly and whom I personally want to see advance in their careers.

One of my favorite modern horror film directors does not focus on some of the classic horror themes as seen in slashers, monster movies, etc. Instead, he focuses on pure unadulterated human struggle and examines the horror of humanity; what one can do to themselves and what that person can and will do to others when faced with the desperation of the extremities. In a way, this person speaks to me personally as I find one of the most poignant everyday “horrors” that I face is the “horror” of freewill – What I, or anyone could do without the trappings of moral, ethical, or other guidelines.

The director that I’m speaking of is Chan-wook Park. I feel that, with his Vengeance Trilogy, he has explored varying degrees of horror, from the horror of human behavior to the horror of destiny (if one is “destined,” then their free will is stripped entirely). He explores the concept of Vengeance as being both an active choice and also all-encompassing fetters. He creates characters that are both horrifying and pathetic and I think that he creates true stories of gothic horror and elevates them to an eloquent Dickensian level, but tempers them with the grace, beauty, and playfulness of his direction.

I find Chan-wook Park a true inspiration and look at his films as modern icons of horror and the human condition.

And that is why, for this proposal, I will be collaborating with Director Chan-wook Park for the fourth installment of his Vengeance Saga, entitled…


Daughter of Vengeance (a.k.a. Sympathy for Daughter Vengeance)

Please note: This film following takes place in South Korea and is performed and acted in their native tongue.



Opening Scene:

The movie begins. The credits roll.

Interior: Luxurious hotel room, Night

We are encompassed within the charm of sultry music while panning slowly within a luxurious hotel room. The camera moves and we see glimpses of a scantily clad woman – Her shoulder where a bra strap is sliding off, her hips as she sways to the music. The camera cuts between the dance of her body and the man before her, watching her. He is an older man, in a business suite. As the credits continue to roll, we hear her whispering sweet nothings, “Do you like this?” … “How do you like this?” … “Tell me what you want me to do…” as the man sighs, watching her. She pours him a stiff drink and we see a close-up of her hands passing it to him. We are captivated by the sway of the camera and the sound of the music when it stops suddenly and pans out:

She is only fifteen.

She looks directly at the camera and says, “Now tell me. Where is Dae-Jung Lee?”

He looks at her and laughs, “What are you talking about? I haven’t seen him in years –“

In a flash, she takes the hotel room’s letter opener and stabs him in the throat. He gasps as the blood pours out. She looks at him, indifferently and starts to get dressed. He slumps onto the floor as she puts on her clothes, goes through his things, finds his wallet, pulls out all of the money inside and tosses it onto him as he breathes her last breath. She opens the hotel room to exit and when the door slams, cut to black and the title displays in white:

Daughter of Vengeance




(cont.)

[ChronoGrl]

Plot and story summary:

Our movie focuses around our 15-year old heroine, Hye-Su Oh, who is working as a child prostitute in the impoverished section of Seoul’s Itaewon District. Here we see a collection of Korean business men amongst a population of American soldiers creating an eclectic atmosphere of Korean corrupt rich and equally corrupt American presence.

Hye-Su Oh clearly has a purpose. Along with the John we see her kill in the opening credits, she kills a second John, a masochist, by binding him to a hotel bed and piercing him with fishhooks (at least 50), all of them attached to a strand of fishing line. She grasps all of the fishing lines together and tugs them, asking him the same question, Where is Dae-Jung Lee? And when he doesn’t answer, she forcefully pulls thme out of his chest as he screams. She gags him and leaves him bound to the bed.

Amidst her bloody trail of murders, we learn slowly of Hye-Su Oh’s back story through staggered flashbacks and voice-overs:

It’s her sixth Birthday party. There are banners and streamers and she is celebrating with her mother, father, and little brother (about 3-years-old). Suddenly a man and his henchmen (the two Johns we saw Hye-Su Oh kill earlier) break into their house: Dae-Jung Lee, a Seoul mob boss and loan shark has come to collect his money from her father. Upon entry into the house he immediately shoots her mother, who collapses like a ton of bricks. She screams and hides in the closet of her parent’s room with her brother. The henchmen come after her and one of the henchmen grabs her brother and slits his throat. She stands there, petrified, as they torture and humiliate her father, tying him to his own bed, naked and threatening to rape his only daughter. They cut off his fingers and one of his eyes. Finally, Dae-Jung Lee kills him by shooting him in the face.

After the grueling flashback and tales are over, it is revealed that Dae-Jung Lee had sold the 6-year-old Hye-Su Oh to the brothel where we find her at present. She explains that for most of her life, she was not cognizant of what had put her there. It wasn’t until she reached puberty that she began to have flashbacks about what happened, though they are only snippets. It was the presence of the two Johns that pushed her over the edge to remember what happened.

We learn that Hye-Su Oh is lonely and has never known the love of a mother or father, or the bonding between siblings. She longs for that familial bond.

She then states her mission statement: She is tracking down Dae-Jung Lee and plans on killing him and destroying his family, just as he had done hers, on her 16th Birthday, which is in a month.

Realizing that her Birthday is in a month, the movie begins to adapt a “countdown” metaphor (i.e., scene cuts to black displaying: 30 days remaining).

Finding that two of his best clients are dead, Jung-Hwa Kim, her pimp and owner of the brothel, confronts her and beats her mercilessly, her face bloody and swollen. This is a long and drawn-out fight scene. Jung-Hwa Kim throws her into his mirror and she is cut by the shards of glass. In a final standoff, he attempts to rape her but she bites his penis off, knocking him off balance and then sinks her teeth into his neck, tearing into his jugular. Hye-Su Oh then tears through Jung-Hwa Kim’s possessions and finds an address book with an entry for Dae-Jung Lee.

Now knowing where Dae-Jung Lee lives, Hye-Su Oh purchases a maid uniform and visits his home, offering her house-keeping services for a job. She ties her hair back neatly and calls herself Soon-Bok Ham.

To her surprise, Dae-Jung Lee is not the tyrant she pictured him to be; he is older, pudgier, and has three sons: One 9-year-old and two 5-year-olds, both twins. He hires her to the position, stating that his work requires him to do a lot of traveling and with his wife in the final stages of her third pregnancy, he needs help around the house.

Over the next couple of weeks, Hye-Su Oh rarely sees Dae-Jung Lee’s wife, only in passing, and begins to bond with the three boys. Here, Chan-Wook Park will strike up an odd tone of aloofness between the two women, the wife passing as a beautiful ghost occasionally from room to room, but never seen with her husband or sons.

Hye-Su Oh serves as maid and surrogate mother, bathing them, playing with them, and tucking them into bed at night. Even Dae-Jung Lee, though flitting in and out of the scenes seems nothing but tender and loving to his sons.

But then her 16th Birthday approaches. Dae-Jung Lee goes on a business trip and she is left to take care of his three boys. On the evening of her 16th Birthday, Hye-Su Oh is giving the twins their nightly bath and she is caught between the fresh bond that she feels for them and the vengeance that she has been building up for the past 10 years. In a sudden flashback and fit, she pushes both of their heads beneath the water and drowns them as they struggle. She is weeping by the time is done and then turns to the bathroom doorway, where she sees the 9-year-old standing there. He immediately turns to run to his room and climbs onto his bed where she winds up strangling him to death while weeping. Hye-Su Oh is caught within herself, crying in the dark of his bedroom until the silence is broken by the voice of the Wife, calling her sons’ names.

Hye-Su Oh straightens out abruptly and grabs an arrow from the quiver of the 9-year-old’s archery set and heads toward the wife’s bedroom. She opens the door and the wife is standing there, back to her. She comes up behind her, arm poised with the arrow when the wife turns suddenly and the two women’s eyes lock.

“Hye-Su Oh?”

…

“Mamma?”


We take a moment to take in the shock while Hye-Su Oh realizes that she has just slaughtered her only living siblings.
Hye-Su Oh’s mother reveals that after that night, she was revived by Dae-Jung Lee. He kept her alive and told her that he would keep her daughter safe if she agreed to be his wife and bear him a family. In those 10 years, Hye-Su Oh’s mother endured his abuse and his advances – his children – being his kept woman - with the sole dream of seeing her baby daughter again.

Now united, Hye-Su Oh asks her mother what they should do about Dae-Jung Lee, knowing that he should be returning from his business trip the following evening. Hye-Su Oh’s mother says that she has been waiting 10 years teach to her daughter what all mothers pass down to their baby girls: How to cook. She decides that they would cook for Dae-Jung Lee together.

The next day they spend the entire day making dumplings: Rolling the dough and filling it with meat. We see a stark contrast from the violence of the movie to the tender bonding moment of mother and daughter over cooking.

When Dae-Jung Lee arrives home, Hye-Su Oh serves him his meal on a silver platter. He sits alone in their grandiose dining room and we close-up on his gluttony as he slurps and eats the dumplings. Once he’s done, Hye-Su Oh reveals her true identity and tells him that she has slaughtered his sons. Dae-Jung Lee retorts by telling her they were her brothers, and that she is a brother-killer and no better than he is.

And then she reveals what she put in the dumplings.

Out of the shock and horror of eating his own children, Dae-Jung Lee crumples to the floor as Hye-Su Oh’s mother emerges and stands beside her. The two women stare down at the man, who is gagging in the grand dining room, lamenting, and holding his chest. Finally, he pulls out his gun and shoots himself in the head.

Fade out.

Our final scene is an idyllic scene of Hye-Su Oh and her mother in a farm in the countryside. Her mother is no longer pregnant and with them is a baby girl. The three women stand strong as the movie fads to black. Roll credits.


(cont.)

[ChronoGrl]

Cast and Crew
Hye-Su Oh: Ok-bin Kim
Dae-Jung Lee: Min-sik Choi
Hye-Su Oh’s Mother: Yeong-ae Lee
Director: Chan-wook Park
Writer: Chan-wook Park
Cinematographer: Chung-hoon Chung
Music: Seung-hyun Choi
Producer: Quentin Tarentino (like him or hate him, he has a clear appreciation for Asian Cinema and he will be able to assist in Park’s film penetrating the American indie film market)
Shot on Location: Itaewon and Seoul for most of the film. New Zealand for the final scene at the end.
Length of Shoot: Six months


Marketing
Since I have decided to make a foreign film and go with a director who is primarily known for his Korean movies, we will have to focus on its penetration in the Korean and Asian Market prior to American releases. We will have a series of film posters with Ok-bin Kim dressed purposefully as “youthful” (example: skirt, button-up shirt and ponytails) with blood dripping off of her and a knife in her hand.

The first sets of trailers would focus on the character of Hye-Su Oh. A voiceover asks, “What would you do if your family was stolen from you? How far would you go?” We see a desperate Hye-Su Oh with flashes of her scantily clad and then weapon-wielding.

The second set of trailers would focus on the star-power of Min-sik Choi as villain with Ok-bin Kim plotting her revenge. We would not portray Yeong-ae Lee in any of the commercials and keep her involvement from the posters and ads so as to keep the final reveal of her relationship to Hye-Su Oh a secret.

We’ll create a fake site for Hye-Su Oh that contains a widget where you could create your own vengeance plan, Mad Libs style and print it out. There will also be a flash game where your ultimate goal is to reach Dae-Jung Lee and kill as many henchmen in the way as humanly possible. A running score will be kept on the site with the incentive to win four tickets to a private screening of the film and to meet the cast.

Once released in the Asian Market, we will target mostly independent cinemas in America. Chan-Wook Park will do the interview circuit, including returning to CNN as well as NPR to capture the intellectual movie-going crowd. We will also pair up with horror magazines like Fangoria and Rue Morgue to sponsor free screenings in big cities like New York and L.A. in some of the smaller theaters (must have name on guest list to enter). We will also make sure that Asian Cult Cinema magazine gives a feature article to Chan-Wook Park and this film.

[ChronoGrl]

Pfew!

Well, I would like to make a FEW thanks...

To V for moderating and organizing this competition... To the judges for taking the time to read, assess, critique, and delve into all of our entries. Thank you NE, Doc, Austin, Hammerfan, and Rod for taking the time out for this competition.

To Bwind and Flayed - You guys are both creative, brilliant, and full of film knowledge; it's been fantastic to compete beside you and read what you have to contribute - It's honestly refreshing to read the creativity of your peers, especially when most of the people around you all day do NOT appreciate horror (ahem - MY WORKPLACE :p ).

And to everyone else who started out in this competition - It was fantastic to see what your creative juices had to offer.

Also, on a personal note, I have found this competition to be truly inspiring; I have written more here the past couple of months than I have in a long, long time. It's awakened a part of me that I stifled (GOD knows why! Lack of time? Lack of confidence?) and now I am once again inspired to pursue writing... The next step is to actually take the time and DO it.

Thank you all for the opportunity to flex my writing muscles while simultaneously being exposed to new and creative talent and ideas.

This whole competition has been an utter blast.

Thank you all.

And to Bwind and Flayed - Good luck.

[neverending]

All three of these contestants have shown great skill & creativity throughout this contest. It has been an honor to critique your efforts, and the efforts of other contestants, particularly Roshiq.

That said, I have seen better work from each of these contestants at other times during the battle.

Though Baba Yaga was a favorite tale of mine as a child, I found Flayed's proposal lacking in focus. There were no characters for me to grab onto. There were plenty of striking images but the storyline was not well delineated and was hard for me to follow at times.

Bwind's offering was certainly commercial. The use of Chupacabra was not enough to raise it above the basic mendacity if the plot. I have seen it before. On the sci-fi channel. That said, your proposal was quite detailed and well told. I'm sure somebody somewhere would make this film.

Chrono, your story offers the most fleshed out characters, but they're not as original as I would expect from you- I see heavy doses of Old One-Eye here, and that episode of Three Extremes where they make dumplings out of babies. Was that by Park? The ending seems somewhat of a let-down as well. I'm not sure I believe he would kill himself.

This was an extremely tough challenge. If I seem harsh in my criticism, I say it must be so- the stakes are great here. We'll see how the judging goes...

[_____V_____]

The deadline is up.

I ll now request all Judges to send me their grades for the Grand Finale entries.

Best of luck to Bwind, Chrono & Flayed.